The President oversees the society and sets priorities for the year. In particular, the President is responsible for the public face of the AMS, as well as coordinating the executive committee. As President, you decide your own targets, as well as those of the organization. The big issues in the portfolio over the next year are: the new SUB project, modernization of business practices, executive coordination.

The Ballot

Alex Monegro

Blake Federick

Paul Korczyk

The Reasons

The President’s biggest responsibility is the coordination of the executive team. Their second biggest responsibility is to negotiate for the new SUB. In our opinion, the candidate who can best accomplish these two huge responsibilities is Alex Monegro. He has experience working with a large team within the CUS, and if you can coordinate as many Type A’s as I know there are in Commerce, we think he can handle anything that the future AMS Exec throws at him. Most importantly, we think that he can play off Tristan in ways similar to Mike when negotiating with the University.

Blake is a good candidate. We like Blake, but we don’t think that he will offer the critical counterpoints needed to get a good result in SUB negotiations. I’ve heard a couple of times throughout this campaign that people would love to vote for Blake were he running for anything other than President, and we agree – Blake’s priorities are better placed within the VP External or Academic portfolios. President this year will be a very internal position, with new SUB demanding most of the President’s time, and Blake’s priorities do not mesh well with this.

We give huge kudos to Paul, but he hates animal rights (see interview coming up). It takes a lot to throw your name in the bin too get torn apart by the hacks, but Paul managed to get through it unscathed. We’ll try harder next time. Paul has a great point about communication, and the AMS does need to prioritize this in future. The President needs context, perspective, and respect for the rest of the executive team at all times, things the other two candidates will be able to accomplish this much more easily than Paul . We hope he sticks around and goes for a council seat, though.